Doppel Looping

ok thanks, i'll have a look. If i figure anything out, i will share it with the group.

Do you mean the Sun newspaper? When i was in London in the 1980's the sun had a topless pin up girl on page 3, probably not anymore. At the time the joke was "What is the hottest part of the sun ... page 3." I remember on the Tube doing a double take, looking over someone's shoulder reading the newspaper seeing a topless model. I will look into this discount, thanks.

Thanks for the feedback. I was thinking more than one day at the dry park because I may not get back there too often. I have heard a lot about the park over the years and this will be my first visit. Ordering tickets online, the second day is an extra 12 pounds (lb?). The Waterpark is an extra ticket ~18 pounds. On the other hand, flying there cost considerably more. My wife enjoys waterparks, and i wanted to do something she likes too. Wonderland is our home park, and we go there often. We had really enjoyed Rulantica at Europa park a few years ago. We are not able to visit USA this year. I guess my waterpark question is: would going to the waterpark be the equivalent of riding kiddie coasters for the 'credits' and look a bit weird? I read something about a watercoaster and some slides outside, but i am not sure.

Dusting this topic off… my wife and i are going to england this june and were planning to visit alton towers. She is a fan of waterparks so we were thinking about 1 day in the dry park and another in the waterpark. i didn't get a good sense from their website of what the waterpark is like. It seemed like it was more geared toward little kids and families. We don't mind but i wanted to see what others think of it. Is it worth spending a whole day there? The park seems only to be open 10:00am-4:00pm/ 6:00pm saturdays. I was wondering if one day is enough for the dry park. They have a second day for 12 pounds, so we could do a half day in the waterpark and 1.5 days in the dry. Also there seems to be a waterpark nearby in stoke on trent, not sure if it is worth a visit?

I like that idea. They could make it look like you are diving through a Roadrunner and Wile-e coyote style canion. Or even better: make it look like a bunch of 2002 Corollas are parked beneath as you ride by!

What a time to be alive!

It’s not you specifically but i often hear people complain about the ‘parking lot coaster’. Maybe it’s just my fondness for travelling schwarzkopf coasters but i almost didn’t even notice the parking lot lines. I was just glad to ride the coaster. Of all of the irritating things about 6 flags parks, themeing under the rollercoaster is towards the bottom of the list.

For what it is worth, i really liked scream when i rode it in ~2010.

Have they ever built a drop coaster with an overbank?

It is a combination that works well but i just wondered if it is worth changing it up. Maybe it is because you need a lot of height for an impressive immelmann, therefore it makes sense to start with it.

Nice. it got me to wondering: do most, if not all drop coasters go from first drop to immelmann?

is that like theatre in the round?

If only they had a source of spare parts to get one from

We normally get the day off on the monday of the long weekend, so May 25 in this case. If you waited for the tuesday or later in the week it may be better. It looks like Wonderland starts daily operations the week before. Normally early season weekdays are quieter unless schools are having class trips. It is a nice time of year to go. reach out closer to the date, and if i have time i can meet up if you like.

On may 24 weekend we celebrate victoria day for queen victorias birthday. (She is dead now but we still celebrate) it is the first long weekend of the summer. Alpenfury is great. Its line is not. Last year they were sending 2x more fastlane people through than general population, so it takes a long time.

Was it dark at 2:45 there? I would have thought that you could see them better at night. Good for them for being busy though.

The patina of neglect!

Maybe they can send wonderlands worn out old trains to mia for parts cars? it was always fun to fly into the final brake run with half of the upstop wheels spinning because they dont all touch the track at the same time.

Like deja vu all over again!

If some slick new trains draw people to a vintage slc headbanger from the lines of rides i want to go on, then it is a win!

Have a drink with a princess! What a great promotion.

Today was the last day of our trip. We have seen a lot, rode a lot of coasters, drank a lot of beer and ate a lot of good food. Pretty much what we set out to do. We started the day right with a proper Bavarian weißwurst frühstück (breakfast) at the Schneider brauerei restaurant near Marienpmatz. it is white veal sausage with sweet mustard and a pretzel, washed down with a weizenbier. In this case they had a special festbier version which was really good. As we were finishing up we noticed that it started to get very busy in the restaurant. I mentioned to the waitress that we picked a good time to get there early before it got busy and she told us that octoberfest was shut down for the day because of a bomb threat. They said they would try to have it open at 5:00 pm at the earliest. Oops…The shame is, it was the nicest sunniest day all week to be closed on. We had planned to spend the day walking around town anyway but hoped it would open again as promised. We took a tram tour around and ended up at the lowenbrau keller. It was a beautiful building from the outside but we didn't see the inside because it was full of people who would have otherwise been in the tents at the Wiesen. While taking a break at the hotel we heard it confirmed that the fest was reopening at 5:30pm so we came back for a final visit. We took the u bahn to Poccistraße and came in the south end by the oide wiesen. We caught a nice view of olympia looping from behind with the sun setting. We took some last rides on Alpina bahn, and the double wild mouse. When offered the chance to have a 1/2 meter sausage we couldn’t possibly refuse. Took a ride on the beer carrousel because it looked like fun and it not the kind of thing you see back home. From there we went to the riesenrad where they didn’t offer us a beer. We got some nice nightime views of the park all lit up. Really cool up there. We went back to olympia looping and took 4 final rides. Buying the tickets i was thinking I was maybe being a bit obsessive. As i took my last rides I thought it was exactly the right way to finish this journey. I finished off in my favourite seat in the middle of the train, thinking, damn i love this coaster. Thanks for everyone who followed along and reacted to and commented.

We returned to munich today after our road trip and went to the ratskeller gasthaus under city hall for dinner. The food was delicious as was the upside down beer and reasonably priced. Lowenbrau fest beer gefählt mir gut. Despite the light rain we went back out to the wiesen. Supprisingly many people were there with umbrellas making rhe best of it. Got another ride on olympia looping. The rain makes it run really smooth but when it pelts you in the face you really know you are a die hard coaster nerd. (I have been through worse, pelted with sleet on behemoth in the late season, so this was easy in comparison) When it rains hard, the logical thing is to find a nice dry tent. No sweet caroline for this crowd, we got to hear german versions of bon jovi, the cranberries and oasis. After a long travel day that beer felt good. What would have been a rained out night was saved by thousands of people determined to have a good time, and willing to cough up 15.80 eur per liter to do so

Yeah, as you go through the flume underneath there is a scene with a roman bath with a bunch of naked grannies splashing around. There are a bunch of younger models, maybe transformed by the fountain that were too anatomically correct and risqué, so they have been given shawls to cover up. I can only imagine.

Today we went to Tripsdrill erlebnispark. After a mildly challenging parcours of u-bahn, s-bahn, regional bahn and 2 busses, we made it. The German transportation system is well coordinated and so when you get off one leg of the trip, the next is waiting for you shortly afterwards. The park is a love letter to swabian culture, celebrating the quirks and eccentricities. They are nestled in a valley surrounded with vineyards and winemakers which they showcase the history of. As you enter the park you are greeted by a maypole ride where cars are hung from the pole and move up and down as it spins. We began our day with 2 rollercoasters added just in time for the pandemic. Hals uber kopf or head over heels is a new generation Vekoma suspended coaster (gold track). It fortunately bears absolutely no resemblance to the classic SLC headbangers we all know and love to avoid. I have heard that new generation Vekomas are really good and this confirms it. It had really nice pacing and a snappy layout of helixes, heartline rolls, swooping curves and inversions. The transitions were smooth and effortless making it a very reridable family coaster…. Which we did all day. Interwoven with it is Volldampf, roughly full steam ahead, a family steam train themed shuttle coaster (red track). The steam engine front car even has smoke coming out of the stack while in the station. It is pulled backwards up the launch hill and then released to come back through the station and past a bunch of twists and turns and burst through the roof of hals uber kopf before returning backwards to the station. Nearby they had a new ride themed to a coal car which at first glance looks like a top spin, but it swings you around and up and down without dumping you upside down and leaving you hanging watching the change fall our of your pockets. On the other side of the park they had a nice log flume, i guess loosely themed to roman baths complete with bathtub shaped boats but with a swabian castle exterior. Maybe trying to explain its contradictions is unhelpful, but it was really fun nonetheless. Sharing much of the structure is G’sengte sau- crazy pig coaster, a Gerstlauer wild mouse (pig) ride that was really good. It had a few of the standard flat 180 degree turns but also many swooping banked drops. The track on its own was great but its interactions with terrain and castle made it awesome. Easily on of the best of its type i have ridden. I thought i would like it but loved it instead. Next to it was Mamut, a gerstlauer wooden coaster. We were looking forward to this and were disappointed by how rough it was when we rode mid train. We came back later to ride the middle seat of the last car and it was much better but still not great. Wanted to like it but can’t. Around the corner was Karacho a gerstlauer infinity coaster. It looks really cool with a lim launch, lots of loops, non inverting and regular and helixes and curves. I am a big fan of Fahrenheit and enjoyed Voltron the tesla coaster but didn't like this one. It started off poorly with a jojo roll a la hydra ar dorney, a slow corkscrew inversion that has you upside down, falling into your restraints. Then an awkward klunky drop into the launch. it seemed that every time there was a transition between elements or the top of the non inverting loop, it had a jarring bump. It was really irritating and it took away from my enjoyment of this ride. I had hoped to ride it many times but i just went the one time. It did make a nice mark on rhe horizon with the vineyards in the hills behind it. Nearby was a fun ride that was a cross between a huss swing around and a jumbo the elephant ride with motorcycles and side cars. When you turned the throttle it made a motor sound and the bike swung out and up. They also had a really nice tivoli coaster themed to a millipede that banked and dropped through the trees and flowers. It was fun. For me it was an interesting contrast between the midway rides with their spectacular lighting packages at the wassen and oktoberfest and the ones here. They were more subdued and relaxing as opposed to something striving to get your attention. Tripsdrill is a really nice park with traditional displays celebrating local culture and old familiar rides coupled with new expansions that broaden the park’s appeal. It is a very different experience but fun in it’s own way.